The distribution and consumption of digital data and media is ever increasing. Digital data is typically transmitted, for example, by a transmitter/receiver that encodes and/or encrypts the digital data. A receiver subsequently receives the encoded and encrypted data, decrypts and decodes the data, for ultimate delivery and rendering to a user. The digital data may include video, audio, picture, text, and other data. Synchronization points or identifiers or start points of various portions of the digital data (e.g., packets or frames) may be included in transmitted and/or stored media, such as video, for example, to enable error correction, accurate and clean start and stop times of video, decoding in the middle of or only a portion of the data, etc. In order to prevent false identification of these start or synchronization points, which may, for example, indicate the start of a frame or picture in various file formats or standards, such as Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) 2 (H.262) or 4 (.mp4) (H.264), identifiers may be placed in the data to indicate the occurrence of a portion of data that is similar or identical to the start point or start code (e.g., start code emulation). These identifiers may be referred to as emulation prevention bytes (EPBs). In some cases, portions or all of the digital data may be encrypted for example, to ensure that the data is not modified or intercepted and decoded by an unauthorized party. The process of encrypting portions of data may create challenges during insertion of an EPB and subsequent decoding processes. In some instances, switching between various data formats (e.g., video formats), may be more difficult and time consuming based on the presence of EPBs. Accordingly, improvements can be made to the process of searching for start codes, inserting EPBs, and encrypting digital data.